Perfluoroammonium salt of heptafluoroxenon anion

ABSTRACT

New energetic salts NF 4  XeF 7  and (NF 4 ) 2  XeF 8  are prepared by reacting NF 4  HF 2  with XeF 6  and exposing NF 4  XeF 7  to blue 4880Å laser light.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

This invention relates to energetic inorganic salts and more particularly to salts containing the NF₄ ⁺ cation.

NF₄ ⁺ salts are key ingredients for solid propellant NF₃ --F₂ gas generators, as shown by D. Pilipovich in U.S. Pat. No. 3,963,542, and for high detonation pressure explosives, as shown by K. O. Christe in U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,124. The synthesis of NF₄ ⁺ salts is unusually difficult because the parent molecule NF₅ does not exist and the salts must be prepared from NF₃ which amounts formally to a transfer of F⁺ to NF₃ according to:

    NF.sub.3 +F.sup.+ →NF.sub.4.sup.+

Since fluorine is the most electronegative of all elements, F⁺ cannot be generated by chemical means. This difficult synthetic problem was overcome by K. O. Christe, et al as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,503,719. By the use of an activation energy source and a strong volatile Lewis acid, such as AsF₅, the conversion of NF₃ and F₂ to an NF₄ ⁺ salt became possible: ##STR1## However, only few Lewis acids are known which possess sufficient strength and acidity to be effective in this reaction. Therefore, other indirect methods were needed which allowed conversion of the readily accessible NF₄ ⁺ salts into other new salts. Two such methods are presently known. The first one involves the displacement of a weaker Lewis acid by a stronger Lewis acid, as shown by K. O. Christe and C. J. Schack in U.S. Pat. No. 4,172,881 for the system:

    NF.sub.4 BF.sub.4 +PF.sub.5 →NF.sub.4 PF.sub.6 +BF.sub.3

but is again limited to strong Lewis acids. The second method is based on metathesis, i.e., taking advantage of the different solubilities of NF₄ ⁺ salts in solvents such as HF or BrF₅. For example, NF₄ SbF₆ can be converted to NF₄ BF₄ according to: ##STR2## This method has successfully been applied by K. O. Christe, et al as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,108,965; 4,152,406; and 4,172,884 to the synthesis of several new salts. However, this method is limited to salts which have the necessary solubilities and are stable in the required solvent. The limitations of the above two methods are quite obvious and preempted the synthesis of NF₄ ⁺ salts of anions which are either insoluble in these solvents or are derived from Lewis acids weaker than the solvent itself and therefore are displaced from their salts by the solvent.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The limitations of the previously known reactions for the synthesis of NF₄ ⁺ salts are overcome by the present invention. It was found that NF₄ ⁺ salts derived from very weak and volatile Lewis acids, such as XeF₆, which are weaker than the solvent itself, can be prepared by the following method. A solid having the composition NF₄ HF₂.nHF, where n ranges from about 0.5 to 10, was obtained as described by K. O. Christe et al in Inorganic Chemistry, 19, 1494 (1980). Repeated treatments of NF₄ HF₂.nHF ,with a large excess of XeF₆ followed by removal of the volatile products at ambient temperature, permitted to shift the following equilibrium: ##STR3## quantitatively to the right.

For applications, such as solid propellant NF₃ --F₂ gas generators for chemical HF-DF lasers, the NF₃ --F₂ yields must be as high as possible and no volatile products which would deactivate the excited species can be tolerated. The highest usable fluorine contents theoretically available from the thermal decomposition of a previously known sufficiently stable NF₄ ⁺ salt were 64.6 and 59.9 weight percent for (NF₄)₂ NiF₆ and (NF₄)₂ MnF₆, respectively. Although these fluorine yields are high, the solid NiF₂ and MnF₃ byproducts render their formulations difficult to burn and require higher fuel levels thus reducing the practically obtainable fluorine yields. Consequently, NF₄ ⁺ salts decomposing exclusively to NF₃, F₂ and inert diluents, such as noble gases or nitrogen, were highly desirable. The new NF₄ XeF₇ salt, described in this invention, fulfills all of these requirements and provides a theoretical usable fluorine yield of 62.9 weight percent. On decomposition, it produces only NF₃, F₂ and inert Xe. A further increase in the usable fluorine yield to 71.7 weight percent, the highest presently known value, was achieved by converting NF₄ XeF₇ into (NF₄)₂ XeF₈ according to:

    2NF.sub.4 XeF.sub.7 →(NF.sub.4).sub.2 XeF.sub.8 +XeF.sub.6

This conversion was achieved by irradiating the yellow NF₄ XeF₇ salt with blue 4880 Å light from an Ar ion laser. The yellow NF₄ XeF₇ strongly absorbs the blue light and is photolytically decomposed to (NF₄)₂ XeF₈ and gaseous XeF₆. Since (NF₄)₂ XeF₈ is white it does not absorb the blue light and is not further decomposed. Therefore, this invention also provides a new, selective, laser-induced, photolytic method for converting NF₄ XeF₇ into (NF₄)₂ XeF₈. The latter compound not only provides the highest NF₃ --F₂ yield of any presently known compound, but also gives the highest theoretical detonation pressures in explosive formulations (about 50 kbar higher than corresponding formulation containing (NF₄)₂ NiF₆).

Accordingly, an object of this invention is to provide a new compound.

Another object of this invention is to provide new energetic NF₄ ⁺ compositions which are useful in explosives, and solid propellants.

A further object of this invention is to provide NF₄ ⁺ compositions for solid propellant NF₃ --F₂ gas generators for chemical HF-DF lasers which deliver a maximum of NF₃ and F₂ while not producing any gases which deactivate the chemical laser.

Still another object of this invention is to provide a novel method of preparing new energetic compounds.

These and other objects of this invention will become apparent from the following detailed description.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION EXAMPLE 1

Dry CsF (15.54 mmol) and NF₄ SbF₆ (15.65 mmol) were loaded in the drybox into one half of a prepassivated Teflon U metathesis apparatus. Dry HF (9 ml liquid) was added on the vacuum line and the mixture was stirred with a Teflon-coated magnetic stirring bar for 45 minutes at 25° C. After cooling the apparatus to -78° C., it was inverted and the NF₄ HF₂ solution was filtered into the other half of the apparatus. Most of the HF solvent was pumped off during warm up from -78° C. towards room temperature until the first signs of NF₄ HF₂ decomposition became noticeable. At this point the solution was cooled to -196° C. and XeF₆ (17.87 mmol) was added. The mixture was warmed to 25° C. and stirred for 12 hours. Although most of the XeF₆ dissolved in the liquid phase, there was some evidence for undissolved XeF₆. Material volatile at 25° C. was removed in a static vacuum and separated by fractional condensation through traps kept at -64° and -196° C. Immediately, a white copious precipitate formed in the reactor, but disappeared after about 10 minutes resulting in a clear colorless solution. As soon as the first signs of NF₄ HF₂ decomposition were noted, removal of volatiles was stopped and the reactor cooled to -196° C. The HF collected in the -196° C. trap was discarded, but the XeF₆ collected in the -64° C. trap was recycled into the reactor resulting in a yellow solution at room temperature. This mixture was stirred at 25° C. for several hours, followed by removal of the material volatile at 25° C. in a dynamic vacuum. The volatiles were separated by fractional condensation through traps kept at -210°, -126° and -64° C. and consisted of NF₃ (˜0.3 mmol), HF (˜11 mmol), and XeF₆, respectively. The reactor was taken to the drybox and the solid products were weighed. The yellow filtrate residue (5.149 g, weight calcd for 15.54 mmol NF₄ XeF₇ =5.506 g, corresponding to a yield of 93.5 percent) consisted of NF₄ XeF₇, and the white filter cake (5.78 g, weight calcd for 15.54 mmol of CsSbF₆ =5.72 g) consisted of CsSbF₆. The composition of these solids was confirmed by vibrational and ¹⁹ F NMR spectroscopy, pyrolysis and analysis of the pyrolysis residue for NF₄ ⁺, Cs⁺ and SbF₆ ⁻. Based on these results, the reaction product had the following composition (weight %): NF₄ XeF₇ (98.01), NF₄ SbF₆ (0.88 ) and CsSbF₆ (1.11).

The NF₄ XeF₇ salt was identified by its Raman spectrum which exhibited the bands characteristics for NF₄ ⁺ (1159, 1149, (ν₃), 841, (ν₁), 603 (ν₄), 440 (ν₂) and XeF₇ ⁻ (558, 495, 464, 233, 212 cm⁻¹).

EXAMPLE 2

A sample of NF₄ XeF₇ was exposed at room temperature for prolonged time to blue 4880 Å laser light. Photolytic decomposition of NF₄ XeF₇ occurred resulting in (NF₄)₂ XeF₈ formation (time of exposure depends upon the intensity and power of the light source) ##STR4## The (NF₄)₂ XeF₈ salt was identified by its Raman spectrum which exhibited the bands characteristic for NF₄ ⁺ (1158, 1145, 841, 602, 440 cm⁻¹) and XeF₈ ²⁻ (500, 433, 416, 380, 374 cm⁻¹).

Obviously many modifications and variations of the present invention are possible in the light of the above teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims the invention may be practiced otherwise than as specifically described. 

What is claimed is:
 1. NF₄ XeF₇. 